Green Party's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Maidstone and the Weald.
Also a nurse, manager, writer, husband and father...

Saturday, 15 September 2012

Motorists are subsidsed - KGP release

Kent Green Party notes that private motorists continue to be subsidised
by the State, whereas bus and train users have experienced massive
increases in fares in recent years. Stuart Jeffery, Chair of Kent Green
Party, explains:
“Kent motorists are being supported by taxpayers, including those in the
25% of households which do not have access to a car. How? Motorists only
paid about £32 billion in fuel duty and excise duty in 2011. In the same
year, the complete social and environmental costs of car travel were
about £56 billion(1), including the business costs of delays generated by
traffic congestion which the Confederation of British Industry has often
complained about(2). So the current subsidy to private motorists in the
UK is running at about £24 billion a year.
“From 2001-2011, rail fares increased 62% in real terms and bus fares by
69%. But revenue from motoring taxes has actually decreased during the
last ten years. Delays in increasing fuel duty mean a loss to the
Exchequer amounting about £14 billion over the next five years (3). So
motorists are not hard done by, they have a rising level of public subsidy.
“Kent Highways should divert more of its resources to essential
activities which support: public health by cutting air pollution; better
bus services; walkers; cyclists; pothole repair and 20 mph limits in
residential areas. Road-building and widening only makes the subsidy to
private motorists bigger, and should not be supported anywhere in Kent
and Medway.

Ends c250 words

FURTHER INFORMATION: Stuart Jeffery, Chair, KENT GREEN PARTY
07970 436029. Contact address as above. http://www.stuartjeffery.net
Alternate contact, Steve Dawe, Press Officer on 07747 036192 or 01732
355185. Please leave message if necessary on any of these numbers and we
will try to get back to you shortly. KENT GREEN NEWS, free monthly ezine,
is available at www.kentgreenparty.org Published by Kent Green Party and
promoted by H.Dawe, both at 27, Audley Avenue, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1XF.
Notes:
1. Pp2-3 Institute for Public Policy Research The War on Motoring:
myth and reality:
http://www.ippr.org/publication/55/9542/the-war-on-motorists-myth-or-reality
This must include road spending and the costs of A&E and policing, as
well as the health costs of air pollution which kills about 29,000 people
a year in the UK. SEE: Air Pollution: the invisible killer
www.keithtaylormep.org.uk